There have been times in the past few years when you could have been forgiven for wondering whether Arsenal’s commitment towards youth development had waned somewhat.
The days of Arsene Wenger’s project of building a team composed mainly of young players have long gone, with a pressing need for trophies even leading to the Frenchman fielding fewer fledglings in the Capital One Cup in recent seasons.
This week, however, we were provided with a reminder that the club’s desire to develop youth is still very much intact, with Hector Bellerin, Isaac Hayden and Chuba Akpom all officially being promoted to the first-team squad.
Their promotions increase the number of academy graduates in the first-team to eight, meaning that roughly a quarter of the current squad came through the club’s development system.
It isn’t time to get carried away, however, as that figure is a little misleading. Four of the players who fall into that category- Bellerin, Hayden, Akpom and Zelalem- have made just 11 competitive appearances for the Arsenal first-team between them.
In addition, only Akpom and Jack Wilshere progressed from the early stages of Arsenal’s Hale End academy all the way through to the first-team set-up.
Kieran Gibbs, Wojciech Szczesny and Serge Gnabry complete the set of players who made it into the senior squad, and the hope is that the club will be able to promote two or three talents per season into the first-team.
There is still a very long way to go before the club can even begin to think about matching Barcelona’s achievement of having a world-dominating squad comprised primarily of internally-developed talents.
The label of being a first-team player, meanwhile, is no guarantee that a particular individual has a long-term future at the club. Hayden and Akpom will be given every opportunity to progress, but, at present, they are still much more likely to be used at U21 level than in the first-team.
Still, at least this week’s news shows that things are moving in the right direction. The ideal scenario would be to have a team containing several players who have been developed at the club, complemented by a few world-class talents of the quality of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.
Much work will need to be done if that dream is ever to become a reality, but at least we can rest assured that youth development is still very much an integral part of Arsenal Football Club.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
cool
We will be unstoppable in future if these players progress well then we have other young players on loan like toral, jenko and Silva we are in good shape we just need to get a solid CDM for the present
I like what little I’ve seen of Hayden. Way too early to say, but I would love to see an Adams-esque player develop himself into the first team. A brick wall with leadership, quality and passion. Isaac has some way to go, but has shown elements of these characteristics. If it’s not him, I look forward to someone else claiming it, and hopefully it comes soon. Our back line isn’t exactly in the best condition this season, and has been suspect for most of the recent ones too. Side note: I love the opened gates for talent scouting no longer… Read more »
Hosting our own academy is old skool. We should move to a cloud provider: EC-Southampton. Simple robust API, returns robust players time after time, and with no rate limiting.
Great thinking, though aren’t they a bit expensive in comparison to doing it ourselves?
We use them already – Walcott, Chambers, Ox…
Nothing wrong with setting high goals, but promoting two or three per season seems a bit optomistic. To what extent is the most recent promotion of youngsters down to injuries? Anyway, this is their big chance to impress the boss and nail down a position in the squad, and Bellerin seems the most likeliest right now, of those who aren’t already established. Hoping to see more of what Hayden can do.
would love to see Dan Crowley and Zelalem also
Im pretty sure Zelalem was promoted last season.
Yes, I was
im happy with the direction of the club
Somehow Isaac Hayden looks disturbingly like Gael Clichy
Isaac Hayden is composed, good in the air, tall and strong.
He’s still obviously very inexperienced and will initially make mistakes if thrown in the 1st team, no doubt.
But I’d rather see a kid with potential make mistakes than a cricked Koscielny masking an injury making mistakes or a totally played out of position Monreal making mistakes.
Crocked
“The ideal scenario would be to have a team containing several players who have been developed at the club”
The ideal scenario would be to win trophies 🙂
Ormonde-Ottowill will be fire, trust
Waiting for Daniel Crowley..
Asoon as the 1st team is a bit more successful in the CL/PL/FAcup then I’m certain the TinpotCup will again be used to ‘Blood’ the newbies. But some success is needed to stop the whinging of the vast influx of new supporters we’ve gained this millennium.
‘As soon’
Hayden – Bright future. Considering Meterscielny are 30 and 29 respectively, we will need a CBack around 23-25 to come in where Hayden and Chambers are under 20. They are still learning the trade and will need time. Hayden may also benefit from uncertainty where Chambers may eventually end up in the team. Probably good to secure him a strong loan to hasten his learning curve. Bellerin – Another with great promise and who may benefit from where Chambers eventually ends up. An upgrade to jenkinson who was technically weak and whipped his crosses in blind. The Spaniard is a… Read more »
Agree with most of that but I wouldn’t let Hayden leave on loan unless we bring in another CB. Rather, I’d play him in games like Burnley to accelerate his development, instead of playing out of position left backs .
Also disagree with your assessment of Jenkinson, I think he can go far. Will have to see how he does at West Ham but I definitely think he should come back.
Finally Campbell won’t be getting a run in the league cup this season!